Ok…so let’s just get this right out-of-the-way. The reason Verizon uses spectrum twice as efficiently as T-Mobile is because their network goes out every other day. It’s easy to be spectrum efficient with a LTE network that hardly works. Ok, stupid joke over. Anyway…

With T-Mobile already launching the first salvo in what will inevitably be a back and forth has now found a first Verizon response via Verizon’s policy blog. In a post on Verizon’s policy blog, Charla Rath, VP of wireless policy development explains that Verizon is twice as efficient with its spectrum than T-Mobile. According to Rath’s post, Verizon serves 109 million customers with an average of 88Mhz, while T-Mobile serves 33 million with just 50MHz. In other words, Verizon serves 1.2 million customers per megahertz while T-Mobile serves just 660,000.

While the blog post clearly has a number of pats on the back for Verizon’s “impressive” LTE rollout, they obviously don’t agree with T-Mobile’s positions. Rath continues to write that T-Mobile “fails to mention that it will be gaining 10-20 megahertz of AWS spectrum covering 40 percent of the population of the U.S. as a result of its break-up deal with AT&T, giving it spectrum in some areas on par with Verizon and other competitors.” Touche?

Rath ends with a thought on how American wireless customers face a spectrum crunch that still won’t see relief even if Verizon’s spectrum purchase is approved. Verizon puts the onus on the industry and policymakers to work to make sure more spectrum reaches the marketplace. As a final middle finger to T-Mobile, Rath concludes “I’m sure T-Mobile would agree” with that.

About David Beren

David is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TmoNews.com. He considers himself a Jedi Knight, capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound and a connoisseur of fine cell phones. He has been involved in the wireless industry since 2003 and has been known to swap out phones far too many times in any given year. Should you wish to contact him, you can do so: david@tmonews.com.

we need a minus button for this one, ‘KING’ lol. King of HIGH phone bills, and bad LTE coverage. Their 3G is garbage compare to T-Mobile, and their LTE barely works. I have both carriers, and this is a clear case of trying to stop progress. They are simply just trying to block T-Mobile just as it was stated above.

InvisibleHand

If it’s so bad then why do they have 3x as many customers as T-Mobile?

Anonymous

Because Verizon and At&t started off with large customer bases in land line businesses. These customer switched over the cellular services with their respective companies. The rest of the growth came from acquisitions of other wireless companies: Verizon/Alltel Cingular/At&t. Then you just have people buying what everyone else has.

Aemaffei

Great marketing…Can you hear me now? Verizon is doing the same thing Apple is doing, waving the we are the best flag everywhere they can and because they have been doing out long enough people believe it. Being a bartender I can give you an example you may relate too. Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio has been marketed so well, people are willing to pay $40 a bottle when it originally sold for $8. It didn’t get better or wasn’t rated the best, it was marketed that way so people believe it’s better and pay the price. It’s a good wine but not really worth $40 retail. It’s the power of advertising my friend.

By the time T-Mobile has a LTE network, Verizon will be nearly done rolling out LTE. It won’t really matter if T-Mobile has a faster 3G network or not.

Anonymous

Correction, T-Mobile will be rolling out LTE-advanced. The CTO Neville Ray has stated the goal is to launch LTE release 10.

The HSPA+42 network now is on par with Verizon’s LTE but you get better battery life. Meaning, provided both are getting good signal, there isn’t much difference switching from hspa+42 (on a 42 capable device) to verizon lte.

This is exemplifies T-Mo’s jackassery. Business is failing, so let’s get on VZW for an outage. At least their customers are happy, even if it’s $100 a month.

Anonymous

It shows how smart Verizon customers are to pay three times more than T-Mobile for something that doesn’t work as well.

Guest911

This is just a dumb statement.

Anonymous

You’ve said much more convincing things in the past, you dropped the ball with this one…

Anonymous

The point I’m making is people’s perception of Verizon’s quality is grossly overrated and T-Mobile’s quality is understated.

Littlesis1774

I have T-mobile and I can get crappy signal and dropped calls in my house. When I am downstairs by my computer I can zero to one bar. When I am in my upstairs in my room I can get edge or two 3g signals. Everyone experience is different then yours

Kirk

You are wasting your energy with UMA_Fan. He has a good experience with T-Mobile so he fails to expand his tiny pea sized mind and realize that NOT EVERYONE has the same experience as him on the Network.

Realcool2000

Uma fan is right. People only believe Verizon is the best coverage because Verizon advertises so much, many evil people from history have been big believers in whatever is costantly shown to the public is what they will believe as true.

InvisibleHand

Would you say that a car with more horsepower and better gas mileage, doesn’t work as well?

Anonymous

If it went just as fast, cheaper, consumed less gas, and didn’t break down five times in three months, then yeah I would. :)

Kirk

@UMA_Fan:disqus we get it, you LOVE T-Mobile but YOUR EXPERIENCE on the network is CLEARLY not what the majority of people experience.

I don’t live in the boonies, I actually live in one of the largest cities in the nation and T-MOBILE COVERAGE IS SPOTTY IN MY METROPOLITAN CITY. VERIZON HAS COVERAGE IN EVERY INCH OF THIS TOWN.

Secondly, Verizon LTE works on the MUCH PREFERRED lower frequency of around 700mhz. Building penetration is fantastic on Verizon. I walk into a concrete building with friends and my T-Mobile signal drops dead while Verizon is still kicking. This last point ALONE recently has me considering paying more and switching to T-Mobile just for BUILDING PENETRATION ALONE. You never know when an accident or some kind of disaster will happen, and I don’t want to be stuck in a building all alone trapped with no T-Mobile signal. If Verizon signal can penetrate a building and potentially be life saving, that is enough for me to pay extra, and soon I will most likely switch over to Verizon for this very reason.

You act like Verizon is down everyday, but you know what I rather have Verizon with their excellent coverage, building penetration and fast speeds that are up 99.9 percent of the time, compared to T-Mobiles slower speeds, slower ping, and horrible coverage 70 percent of the time.

THE ONLY ONLY ONLY ONLY thing that kept me a T-Mobile customer for so many years was there excellent customer service. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, that excellence is LONG GONE. I’ve never experienced rude obnoxious behavior from reps from any company as I have the last year on T-Mobile.

Anonymous

There are still areas where T-Mobile reception is better than Verizon and vice versa. The nature of wireless is such that its impossible for it to be 100% perfect. It will never be perfect. You pay more for Verizon, you’ll still probably drop a call, get slow data, and find a dead zone.
The way guys like you talk about Verizon it’s like you’re describing some sort of fictitious fantasy network. Weak Verizon Wireless areas where T-Mobile performs better exist, I’ve SEEN them. That being said, for a lot of people, the indoor signal penetration can be solved via WiFi Calling. WiFi Calling is actually one of the most reliable things in the industry.

When the hurricane hit the east coast about a year and a half ago pretty much EVERY wireless carrier lost reception in various areas due to weather conditions. Since WiFi is though hardwired cable lines, I was able to make all the calls and texts I needed to via WiFi Calling while my buddies with Verizon twiddled their thumbs. You bring up relying on T-Mobile during emergencies? There’s your emergency.

Guest

Wifi calling is not good or clear but it’s ok. If tmobile didn’t lose signals so much, we wouldn’t have to rely on our unclear wifi calling. Plus, with tmobile, the signal never steady. During a call, your phone will go from edge(2g) to 4g constantly. When ever you try to download something or play music, it never stay on 4g. You get what you pay for

VOIP is cruder than T-Mobile’s WiFi Calling. T-Mobile has true telephony through the internet. The WiFi is your cell tower so it’s just your regular number when you are calling and texting. Plus most VOIP services charge you to dial out to phone numbers. Plus if towers go out, no one can reach you at YOUR number. With T-Mobile, they CAN.

That’s why WiFi Calling is an amazing feature and having T-Mobile gives you access to it. If other carriers adopt WiFi Calling, then we’ll talk, but for now it’s one of the reasons T-Mobile is one of the BEST carrier options out there.

The real problem is uninformed people who probably never even HEARD of WiFi Calling before, let alone understand it. (kind of like you)

Kirk

WiFi calling was only good on Blackberry using UMA, and nobody but losers use Blackberry anymore. WiFi calling on my Android device with T-Mobile is shit. So get out of here.

Uncle Bob

“I rather have Verizon with their excellent coverage, building penetration and fast speeds that are up 99.9 percent of the time, compared to T-Mobiles slower speeds, slower ping, and horrible coverage 70 percent of the time.”
Exactly why I just left TMO.

Yeah TMO is less $, but what benefit is that if it doesn’t work good where you live? I couldn’t stand it any longer, it was too much frustration with dropped calls or calls that won’t ring through or dial out.

I’m like anyone else, I don’t like paying more for less, but at least now I’m getting decent service for my money.

Anonymous

@UMA_Fan:disqus is a nice guy or girl and definitely know their stuff ( i can easily give them credit based on what they have posted in the past) but they won’t accept anything you just said. As far as they concerned, you are just assailing something that seems to mean a great deal to them.
They don’t take real world need and performance into consideration, nor do they want to understand why VZW and AT&T for that matter are out-performing tmo. As far as they are concerned, tmobile has no flaws and is fine just the way it is. Everyone else is wrong for needing services tmo cannot provide them and they are stupid for paying for for those services they may need.

I call it blind fanaticism, they probably call it love and dedication. It’s scary how closely related those things can be:

“It shows how smart Verizon customers are to pay three times more than T-Mobile for something that doesn’t work as well.As far as I’m concerned, if you don’t live in the boonies, you don’t need Verizon ”

I mean, these clearly are the words and sentiments of someone that does not want to accept the reality of the situation. The market has spoken and tmo has not been as successful as the other guys.

Clearly all the people on VZW and AT&T must be stupid lmao, of course that explains everything!! If you don’t even need cell phone service then you should clearly have tmobile even if it doesn’t work for you where you live if not than you are clearly stupid for paying 3x more for something that works for you. hahaha

Weneedchange

Even the kardashians use Tmobile service. Who thought they were smart.

Littlesis1774

If the Kardashians are then they must be using their iphones on edge. I seen episodes of were Kendal and Kylie are using iphones.

Anonymous

calm down now
Both @Tmobile and @VerizonWireless are managed by their PR people who live to take jabs at each other. Plus, it’s fun to watch them go at it

Anonymous

It’s funny how they don’t address anything T-Mobile brought up in the FCC filing. T-Mobile WOULD be at a disadvantage if Verizon was allowed to purchase that spectrum and secondly Verizon utilizes NONE of the AWS spectrum it hold now.

The purchases were a move to keep the AWS out of At&t and T-Mobile to keep them at a disadvantage with LTE.

Gsm1900

absolutely right. If Verizon needed that extra AWS spectrum, why are they not using the already significant portion they currently own? Their real goal is to prevent other people from buying it by getting it first.

todrules

TMO really has to challenge Verizon on this spectrum deal. It’s really just a basic business practice. You don’t let your major competitor gain a(nother) huge leg up by just sitting there. It’s like trademark infringement. You HAVE to challenge it, or you lose it. Even if you can’t win, you might be able to hold them off long enough, or settle, or even pull out a miracle and win.

Anonymous

I actually believe they are more efficient, but there is no reason T-Mobile can’t be either.

In the time Verizon was out they still managed to take a bunch of tmobiles customers and still make more money for doing nothing :-(

hater on the rocks

you cant blame tmobile for doing what they do. verizon isnt going to use the aws spectrum and tmobile wants it. verizon is the largest carrier in the states why would they wanna buy a spectrum that they cant use? i call that a cox blocking a small carrier like tmobile into not gaining anything but the spectrum they got from the break up fee from att. The fcc should really look at these type of spectrum purchases if it isnt compatible to their network it should be denied.

Weneedchange

Verizon wants to use its aws holdings to compliment its lte network built on the upper blocks of 700 MHz spectrum. It will make the data speeds faster.

Gouv

I bet they do use it more efficiently. T-Mobile needs to catch up on this, there is no reason they aren’t as efficient.

Good, the faster the better, that way you can go over your monthly data cap way faster. Too bad Verizon doesn’t offer UNLIMITED data like T-Mobile USA does. Oh and did you know that T-Mobile’s rate plans are way much more affordable? Guess you like to GIVE your money away to greedy companies..

ENJOY getting ripped off. :-)

Anonymous

You shouldn’t consider it as “getting ripped off” if it actually works well for someone else. I don’t think you understand what it means when a consumer values something. By pushing out the premium brand wireless and super dependability brand to consumers they feel they get their money’s worth. You defend the value brand element because it means a lot to you and tmo works great where you live.

T-Mobile too is a greedy company, if they were in Verizon’s position they would do exactly the same thing. They aren’t the saints of the telcom industry lmao. THEY ARE IN THIS TO PROFIT! they aren’t here to be philanthropists and be charitable by offering cheaper service, that is not their cause at all. Please tell me you get this??

You have to consider that VZW is enormous in comparison and will deliver joy to many more people for that reason where tmobile might be limited in spectrum. Many of you on here fail to understand that sometimes, and I don’t know why you take it so personally. Tmo is not a religion, it’s a company that’s there to profit like any other. Their value system may be different, but it exists solely as a mechanism to help make them MONEY….

I understand everything you have said. However, my standpoint is from the benefit of a consumer’s point of view. You said “if they were in Verizon’s position they would do exactly the same thing.” and of course that is true.

But, fact is that they aren’t in Verizon’s position, and so T-Mobile IS a much more consumer friendly carrier than the big boys.

If a huge portion of people were to leave Verizon and AT&T for T-Mobile, prices WILL decrease. Isn’t that what we all want?

EXAMPLE:
Nintendo 3DS hit the market for $250 dollars. It didn’t sell well, so Nintendo lowered it to $170 I believe.

People need to be more pro-consumer so companies won’t take WAY more than what is needed to provide the service.

Anonymous

Well I’m definitely pro consumer too. I’m really frugal actually!

But tmobile is already doing the price cut that Nintendo did and it’s still not working. The other guys are selling a similar product for the 250 while tmo is trying to sell a similar experience for that 170 price point. Sadly for tmo, the other guys are selling more and are making more money. Tmo is simply losing out. It’s like they are being cheap for no real beneficial reason except to get the other carriers bread crumbs and scraps.

Tmo is in the middle of the battlefield. They are being attacked in the front from the big guys and are also getting hit from behind by th cheap prepay companies.

Weneedchange

Paying $1300-$1700 extra over 24 months just to get ur downloads done a few seconds faster is waste of money and sign of stupidity.

Anonymous

Couldn’t have said it better.

Anonymous

Enjoy paying more for the same speed I get on my Amaze 4G. Not sure what went on with my up speed on the second one, but my up speed is usually around the speed of the first one or higher.

whatever! I get 7Mbps with T-Mobile at home and work for $59, i will take that everyday of the week. With Verizon you pay $120. do the math: $720 more per year! T-Mobile FTW

Respawn

Verizon customers are just like AT&T customers. They would rather pay out the ass for coverage they won’t even use 90% of the time. Innovation and lower prices be damned.

Anonymous

I disagree completely, at least when it comes to Verizon. When you have Verizon, you don’t notice the extra coverage you’re getting since you don’t get any signal issues. With T-Mobile and AT&T, you’ll notice the coverage you’re missing since you constantly are having issues. When we say extra coverage aren’t talking about Nowheresville, Montana that one carrier gets that another doesn’t, we’re talking about the service everywhere you are.

Even in places with strong service you can’t trust T-Mobile or AT&T as much as you can with Verizon; it’s the GSM effect. With every carrier, even in the most thoroughly covered areas there are still dead spots, though it’s not nearly as prevalent with Verizon because of CDMA. While GSM has its advantages like SIM cards and being able to talk and use data with GSM’s 3G networks and we can’t (you can talk and use data if you’re connected to LTE or WiFi even with Verizon), we actually get the service to begin with. I’d take Verizon’s superior CDMA coverage over T-Mobile’s spotty service any day.

There’s a reason T-Mobile’s so cheap, but there isn’t really a reason AT&T is so much more expensive than T-Mobile. AT&T just sucks period.

Anonymous

Within a given city a Verizon customer will still encounter various dead spots and other network related issues. There’s no such thing as a flawless radio network. It’s physically impossible. Verzion has a low frequency band so you’re more likely to get reception in buildings, that’s the biggest differentiator.

Remember Verizon does sell femtocells. The way people talk about their network you think there would be no reason to offer such a thing.

I disagree with you, CDMA isn’t better than GSM. LTE is in fact the next generation from UMTS which was an upgrade from GSM. Verizon discarded the CDMA upgrade, I don’t know the name of it, all I know is that Verizon chose LTE over it’s CDMA next generation technology.

The channel access method of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) is indeed better than GSM. Soft vs. Hard handoff, respectively, is one advantage. But it is the underlying provisioning system with which Sprint and Verizon employ that sucks; no SIMs, ESN registering (or lack there of): ESN blocking and refusal of ESN additions (Sprint/Verizon phone on Verizon/Sprint network), etc. It is possible though as Metro PCS doesn’t seem to have a qualm.

The 3G networks that GSM-based carriers/networks use is based off of Code Division Multiple Access as it is indeed superior access method. They just were able to tweak it quite a bit to get the best of both worlds and some: SIM cards, soft handoff, simultaneous voice and data over the same band, faster data access (hello 84 Mbps HSPA+), etc.

Anonymous

LOL, did you just say in so many words that CDMA is better tech than GSM? You better do some research bud…..

Fabian Cortez

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) is better than GSM. However, W-CDMA/UMTS/HSPA, which are based off of Code Division Multiple Access, is the better route.

It is the provisioning system with which Sprint and Verizon employ that sucks.

Drewmelcher

WOw. couldnt have said it better. I have being saying the same thing about T Mobile.
T Mobile has 42mbps speeds not in down load or upload, but in how quick you go from 4g to G to 2 bars of Edge.
Cant use my data plan because T Mobile 4g is never consistent. It is ridiculous they even say they have a 4g network. Some towers have 4g, but than you lose it quick.
Incosistent 4g coverage. T Mobile has Edge network more than 3g or 4g.
which T Mobile knows, and you cant stream video, watch movies, use android apps on edge. I have T Mobile 4g coverage in my apartment, but I have Time Warner Cable Internet. but every where else I go, T Mobile isn’t. 2 bars of Edge to no signal..
but I only pay 49.99 with a 15% AAA discount.
I am happy with the price.

JSm200

Many handsets also have a network issue where you can’t send SMS on 4G. You constantly get failure messages so Tmobile’s response is to change to EDGE even though you’re paying for 4G. Ive repeatedly done speed tests with the Tmobile 4G in a major urban area and the most I get is 3mbps. I also personally think its so misleading to keep advertising unlimited data with a tiny asterisk…especially prepaid which screams $50 unlimited on huge billboards only for customers to find out one they use 100mb, they’ll be slowed to EDGE – worse than Boost, Virgin and the other prepaids.

The FCC blocked the AT&T and T-Mobile merger for a reason. The reason was because they want four national wireless carriers. Verizon Wireless claims they are facing a spectrum crunch! BUT i beg to differ!

Verizon has 700 MHZ for LTE, 850 MHZ and 1900 MHZ for CDMA, and they ALREADY had some 1700/2100 MHZ AWS spectrum BEFORE making this deal with the cable companies.

The FCC wants competition? They can start by BLOCKING this deal. Verizon Wireless has more than enough spectrum to compete, T-Mobile USA doesn’t.

Bambi

T-Mo has been very good to me, love the network but i am will to pay a little more for better devices, now my device isn’t bad actually I love it SG2 but after seeing the SG Note I’m ready to jump ship, Verizon charges more but Damn these guys have some the the best phones out, they announce a phone today and tomorrow the commercial is aired and the day after that the phone is for sale, T-Mo announce a phone today and 6 months later it’s for sale just to find out it’s some bullshit cheap ass phone, T-Mo better step up their game before they can even consider to fuqq wit the big dogz!!!

EddieT

Verizon doesn’t have the SG Note, and may not ever get it. You could get an unlocked one and come back to Tmo, but internet speeds will be 2G because the phone doesn’t support Tmo’s internet band.. wait awhile maybe instead of a new SG Nexus on LTE, they’ll opt for the SG Note on LTE..

LIKE to tell Tmo we want the Note on LTE :)

Fabian Cortez

He’ll get 3G on the Note in the coming year on T-Mobile due to the refarming of PCS.

Sajam300

Well Tmobile Tech Support admits my phone has ‘known issues’ – that they cannot solve…and there’s nothing they can do. Yet, they keep selling the device- and actually almost doubled the price. Ive gone through a half dozen factory resets and two manufacturer repairs – plus every troubleshooting step known to man. Ive had reps purposely hang up on me and ECR tell me to go find another carrier. Thats not what I call great customer service. I finally got one honest rep who told me he had the same device and all the same problems : “Its just a crappy phone, but they’ve already bought them so now they’re going to continue selling them,” he told me. He said he got rid of it after the same issues with texting, screen freezing, phone turning on and off – he said its a bad processor and a myriad of software issues- and I guess there’s no incentive for them to fix it.

A couple days after they posted that tweet, T went down for a few hours in my area. Their FB page had a lot of posts regarding the outage and I thought I was being clever and posted the same tweet but changed the “we downloaded” to “Verizon users downloaded” and they blocked me from their FB.

I thought it was funny. They didn’t. Lol

Anonymous

lol i love tmo. btw, my white tmo gs2 consistently pulls in faster download speeds than my girls gnex from verizon. the gnex pulls in 8-9Mbps download, while tmo gives me 11-14Mbps down. and i pay half the price with unlimited voice/text and 10GB per month of data. If tmo is good in your area, i see no reason why you don’t have t-mobile.

EddieT

uhm.. i’ve got a Tmo SGS2 and a 4G LTE Verizon SG Tab 10.1 .. the Tablet gets 36Mbps.. i bet the area you quoting is a non LTE coverage..

Anonymous

Well you can’t pull 8meg on VZWs 3G so it would have to be LTE.

Gentleman559

I have an Amaze and I live in Los Angeles. Im getting consistent speeds of 18 -21 MBPS. My friend has an LG Revolution on Verizon and gets 13MBPS tops. T-mobile is awesome and Verizon is shady, arrogant, overpriced and lacks customer service. I also see no reason to have any Carrier other than T-Mobile. Ive had them all and I will stay loyal to them.

Userfriendlyme

I was a Tmobile customer for 6 years always lived in and area where coverage was good. T-Mobile offered a good value for services and I even delt with there so so selection of phones while Verizon and At&t got more premium handsets. I’m now a Verizon customer and yes the services are a little more then with T-Mobile but I absolutely love the customer service. T-Mobile customer service has totally dived. Sure they need more spectrum and LTE this and that but I didn’t even leave them because they were behind in technology. I left because they totally forgot how to take care of there customer. I felt bad actually leaving but I rather pay 25 more for services where my business is actually appreciated.

Nate29p

they say a sucker is born every second.. For the same plan Verizon charges you 100% more than T-Mobile. Is a “better customer service” (which believe me, as an ex-Verizon customer they suck big time) is worth $800 EXTRA a year? seriously? Last time I called T-Mobile’s CS was a year ago and it was to get the unlimited all plan for $60, and their service was excellent.

MIKEEEEE

nate, t-mo aint got a tower within 35 miles of my home. i vowed to go to the wireless carrier that erected a tower in my town, verizon did.

i bought 2 used DROIDs on ebay and set them up.

after 11 years i’m porting my numbers to them.

when t-mo is better than VZW, i’ll come back.

Anonymous

Will you come back to visit?

Tarea222

i have to agree with userfriendlyme after the merger was announced tmobiles customer service went way down. ever since they lost the jd awards they have change their ways and have gone back to their good old days with great customer service. trust me if u come back you wont regret it. i was fustrated with tmobile for a while and tempted to leave but im glad i stayed. and now tmobile using the att money they got to build up their network their definatly on my good side now. i just want to see good lineup of phones now

JSm200

How is it great customer service when they repeatedly tell customers to ‘find another carrier’ – instead of trying to fix the problems.

gary

Agreed.not gonna continue paying a company that doesnt want our biz. Dont know what kind of training reps get where they quickly tell customers to find another carrier. Tmo forums full of stories-whether entry level rep or ECR- saying go elsewhere. Thank u Lt Gooden..I will. Funny when u google reps name & find others complaining that he told them exact same thing. Add us to first quarter stats Mr Humm & blame those employees who claim to represent the office of the prez! Really? ECR problemsolving=go to our competitors…Dont get Tmo mrktgcustserv. Ive been in that biz for 20yrs & have never seen so much incompetence

First of all, Rath’s definition of efficiency comes from the number of subscribers divided by average spectrum holdings. Of course, that number would be in favor of Verizon since they have the most number of subscribers. That does not constitute efficiency. The purpose of going to CDMA from TDMA and to LTE from CDMA is to have more bits per second in a given fixed amount of spectrum. Rath failed to address that.

Secondly, “spectrum crunch” is contradicted by the fact that Verizon (and AT&T) does not use their AWS licenses since acquisition. Moreover, Verizon has A and B licenses in the 700MHz block that they are not using, and none of their phones are capable of utilizing. Yet, they still want to acquire more licenses that they will not use in the short term.
Third, that “it’s hard to imagine anyone launching LTE more quickly and more broadly than Verizon did.” Well no one has to: MetroPCS launched LTE earlier than Verizon did, and they did more broadly relative to the area where they have licenses. Sure, the network sucks but it is much better than their 1x-RTT.

Lastly, one way they can fit the 109M subscribers to their cellular and PCS licenses (the other bands are highly underutilized.) is that they compress the hell out of the voice traffic with their 1/4 and 1/8 rates. Yes, it’s efficient, but that trick only works for voice; and with data traffic, the subscribers are just going to suffer sluggishness squeezing in the old “bands” (well, they still have “the bars”!).

So don’t give me that spectrum crunch nonsense and that “in 2015 will be 47-times greater than it is today” you got from your time machine/crystal ball/tarot cards/whatsoever. When it comes to subscribers per MHz, Verizon wins. It’s should even be much more if you subtract the spectrum they are not using.

Anonymous

Yeah but AWS isn’t necessarily as usable, and has poorer propagation properties than 700 and 800. Heck, it’s the reason at&t didn’t ues the aws they just dropped on tmobile to begin with. It’s less desirable and was mere fall back plan.

WillieFDiaz

All mobile spectrum is efficient and penetrates buildings provided its built out right. Tmobile CAN built a fine network using AWS as ATT or VZW can using 700mhz

Anonymous

Than if that’s the case than why does 1700 mhz naturally not penetrate buildings as well and reach as far as say 850 mhz or even 700mhz?

Anonymous

So many ppl talking about jumping ship over network speeds.. Ridiculous. What’s wrong with hspa+….what’s wrong with tmobiles phones…carriers got your head buzzing…everyday they come out with a new phone and you absolutely must have it??? In sticking with my sweet ol tmobile. They treat me good. They give me great service..and I don’t know where there customer service complaints are coming from but I get excellent customer service from tmobile. I call Verizon to handle my moms phone problems I get attitude from them, thinking they’re a bunch of know it all’s. I call about my fios, although the service is good, the reps hardly know their job…may some ppl should jump ship and keep the network clear…clear of the complainers.

riderdiechic

well said!!!

Anonymous

Dont take it too seriously, many t-mobile customers on here just vent or troll.

Jonn

You’re lucky you’re getting great service and great phones. Many of us – who are long time customers (Ive never even been with another carrier) are NOT…and we have tried to stay loyal and been basically given the middle finger at every turn by employees who are just ill-informed at best and incompetent and rude at worst. Even the retail employees I’ve dealt with for years agree with that. Its like watching a company self-destruct. So if you’re happy- thats great – stick with them. But if you read the complaints – (and yes every company is going to have complaints) and more specifically, the pattern of responses, you definitely see why the company came in last in JDPowers. Read the forums- you have many reps telling customers to ‘find another carrier’ instead of trying to resolve issues. You’ve got handsets with known issues and reps saying ‘theres nothing we can do’ – too bad your phone doesnt work – it may never work but thats your problem.

Guest

I understand your complaints about customer service if you get told to find another carrier cause that is very unprofessional but known issues of a device are not t-mobile’s fault as they do not make the phones. Why not put the complaint in to the company that makes the phone? You will see that no matter what service provider you have EVERY phone has some sort of known issue.

David

What’s wrong with T-Mobile devices? Oh where do I begin.

Most of T-Mobile devices are cheap Android phones that many of them are laggy and make you crazy.

Plus not everybody wants and like Android. Most of their phones feel and look cheap.

There are not much offering for those who wants Windows Phone or iPhone compare to AT&T. They offer the best high-end Windows Phone devices and have iPhone other than Android.

But T-Mobile is all about cheap laggy Android phones. I know many here are Android fanboys but the truth is not everyone like and want Android.

So ys that’s the problem with T-Mobile no high-end devices for other platforms.

gydhrx

Yeah my android freezes daily and then power cycles every day after I have to take the battery out to restart it. Tech support says its a known issue and theres nothing they can do unless I want to purchase yet another phone. Multiple reps have told me to leave Tmo if I wasnt satisfied with their (non) response. So much for 9 years of loyalty. Theyll get their wish; no wonder I dont know a single person with Tmo these days. CustServ has been ATROCIOUS!! Definitely not the old Tmo. 95% of the reps Ive dealt with lately have been disasters

Anonymous

I have no problem with my GS2 . When I do call cs,I get someone almost right away.
I do agree with you all Tm has are either high end android,or midrange android. The 2 midrange window phones. I think one of the problems Tm,has they don’t have any tech people in there stores like Verizon,Sprint, in NYC At&t have tech centers,where can go with your phone if you have problems with it. To my knowledge no Tm stores,have tech support in them. I could be wrong about that. If they do it’s few and far between.
Also they have no older phones they keep like the other 3 big do. At&t still sell sliders
and sell some flip phones that are really good. So does the other 2. Matter of fact the other 3 all have water/res/dust/ proof phones/shock proof phones. Tm?Nothing! both Ver.and At&t has senior plan for $29.99 amonth for 200mins. They have opions for these plans also. Tmo? Nothing for senior’s.

High-end phones on other platforms? Windows Phones specs are basically all the same with the exception of a slight processor bump, build quality wise the HTC Radar is high quality, and if you’re going to say they don’t have the Titan well you know who has priority for Windows Phone? At&t. And we can’t term an iPhone high-end for that platform because there’s only one phone for that platform per year, its only competition is itself within the platform. What do you want? A Symbian device? Or maybe BB7?

The iPhone to T-Mobile is basically up to Apple, if they want to support T-Mobile’s AWS bands, I’m sure T-Mobile would take it if they could.

Peter

I am with T-Mobile for 11 years and I loved their customer service and even advertise for them anyway could since I was so happy all this time. but let’s be honest here from last year their customer service went from the best to really bad sometimes.

I had to wait 45 minutes to someone just come and talk to me on the phone! Before just like 1,2 minutes wait. And then they talk and act the way like they don’t care and thats what it is.

This is not a T-Mobile I knew. :(

So yeah there are issuses with their customer service lately and their device offerings.

Sadiepass

Of course they service more people with teir spectrum…they have more custoners…is this completely obvious to anyone else?

This s like saying Verizon send more text messages everyday to their customers … no suprise with triple the customer base than T-Mobile.

Dave1

So many of you miss the points. If its working great for you, fantastic – keep the service. But you have to realize that many customers are NOT getting value, are NOT getting handsets that work, are NOT getting reliable coverage, are NOT getting competent customer service. Blame the iPhone all you want, but there are other T-mobile issues. So if you feel you’re saving $10 a month or something – don’t call someone else stupid just because they’re not having the same experience. Just all the name calling and vitriol on these posts is just such a huge turn off. TMobile has some serious problems – no need to make excuses or defend them – Competent management would take a look at the problems and talk to customers about their experience…theyd look at forum posts and see the pattern of behavior of customer complaints and Tmobile responses. Ive been with them for many, many years and by next fall, I will leave Tmobile. My last six months with them has been a nightmare – not only handset and network problems, but the worst customer service experience Ive ever had with ANY company in my entire life. If some of these folks worked for me, Id fire them on the spot. I pray some of those calls are being recorded AND listened to because the unprofessionalism of some of these employees in customer service and tech support is just unbelievable to me — especially from a company that used to be known for its stellar customer service.

Edy6401

I agree with your post. However, on the flipside of the coment, people need to realize that not everyone has bad service with T-Mobile. I have amazing speeds at home and work. Average download for me is 8-10mbps. I love the service as others do as well. So, just because some have bad service, it doesn’t mean everyone does. We are all free to pick what works best for our needs. I choose to stick with t-mobile because I believe things will get better soon.

UMA2

Almost every time I talk to someone on a Verizon or AT&T cell phone, I have to put up with sub-par voice quality on THEIR end (choppy on AT&T, voice cutouts/tinny on Verizon). When I talk to someone on a T-Mobile connection (T to T) the voice quality is generally excellent. What is this all about? It’s pretty simple, too many users on the big two networks plus half rate voice codecs in use. It just amazes me that the sheeple actually pay 20%-30% more for such crappy voice quality.

Verizon users imply that T-Mobile frequencies don’t work inside buildings. Well, if you’re close to a T Tower, then this statement is false. I often get good coverage inside buildings in high traffic locations because the tower is logically nearby. Further away from the tower, then T probably isn’t as good as lower frequency spectrum carriers inside buildings. But for home use, then my cable Wi-Fi is a lot more stable and usable (netflix) than any wireless data connection from any carrier. UMA is also much better than the alternatives from the other carriers for good quality network calling in poor reception areas.

All in all, T-Mobile is the best value for many people.

Anonymous

If only 60 million more people shared your opinions:-( tmobile would be perfect and in no trouble what so ever!!

Also how do you know the poor quality isn’t deriving from your end / carrier?

But alas the two carriers that most of the population are using must be sheeple because tmo clearly works way better, right? It’s why they are so dominant these days clearly :-)

For someone that refers to others as sheeple you definitely sound like a blind cheer leader who drank the magenta kool aid

Badankadank

Since you are adamant about what you’ve said, lets elaborate

First, the Voice Codecs used are AMR. Meaning they are adaptive. The comment earlier about Half Rate is only true for busy sites in GSM.

With respect to choppiness, that’s usually due to quality if you see it come and go (meaning you flow thru poor quality signal areas and good quality signal areas). Now if you see the sound ALWAYS poor during one conversation then it could be either carrier causing this condition. Finally, if you never see it TtoT then it would have to be the other carrier OR the connection of Tmo to the other carrier… which by the way it typically will be Verizon or ATT that provide that backhaul (not always!) anyway. It can be due to poor echo cancelling that’s creating poor voice quality between calls.

Last but not least, when you do experience this on your phone press #349 (send the tones), then call in to customer care and let them know to open a ticket with engineering. Let them know the time/date this occurred and the from-to #. Finally, it is VERY important you have them write that you typed #349 while this was occurring to help the engineers troubleshoot.

Last but not least, Tmo is #4 because they did not partake on the mergers that created 1,2 and 3. Take out the fact that #1,2 started in the 80s, an advantage of lower frequencies, ownership of backhaul in most areas (favorable costs) and deeper pockets due to abuse of customers hindering competition (which brought PCS Auctions) yes they are 4th.

Finally, UMA. Lets take customer V, A and T. In a scenario where they each have no network coverage (lets be real, each carrier has strong and weak coverage areas) who wins out when WiFi is available? And, what does this customer loose for having that option? If not convinced, lets travel customers V, A and T to Europe. Each staying at a hotel. Phone’s ringing. T has their phone on UMA, V and A well they are roaming. Who is going to pick up? Who is going to have the option to be on a long call and complete a conversation?

Anonymous

So you are really trying to imply that tmobile is doing just fine the way they are? They are in such a healthy position to ensure a long-term future with the heavy competition? You are also trying to tell me the other guys didn’t also add on a large portion of the population in the last 10 years and that it was all from acquisitions?? If that isn’t complete denial than I don’t know what is??

I’ll give you credit, you seem to really know your stuff, but are you seriously still in this blind belief just like the other commenter that few things that make tmobile a good company for customers is truly going to get them out of this position?

I’m not quite certain why you even chose to elaborate on most of that in reply to me unless its in response to something else I posted else where but that’s ok, you at least provided me with information I was not aware of prior.

Jose Hernandez

Hi, this is not meant to be rude in anyway, but are you a T-Mobile customer? I can see where your post are almost all about how bad T-Mobile is, how horrible they operate and so on. If you are a T-Mobile customer, maybe you might be happier with another provider? If you are not a T-Mobile customer, why bother posting here? I am a T-Mobile customer, and I do realize that they have their problems (I have had some myself) But my posts are not entirely negative about them. Yes they need to improve, yes some mistakes have been made. But if it is that bad, I would have left already and would not bother to post back here ever again. I choose to stick with them because I believe they will improve and get better. Again, this is not meant to be rude to you at all, I just have a hard time understanding why you might be a T-Mobile customer, or even bother to post here at all when it is kind of obvious to tell that you are very unhappy with their service and them as a company overall.

Gouv

Hello Jose,

Don’t worry about being rude, it’s the internet. If i don’t take it that seriously than you shouldn’t either.No i’m not a T-mobile customer at all and likely never will be. I have AT&T and Verizon of which I use one of work and one for personal use. The reason why I enjoy posting on here is because sometimes I have a lot of time in between all my work related travels and posting on sites like these where I find people to be sheepishly blind to the truth is a way to pass the time in a fun and entertaining way for me. Often I post on here when i’m waiting at hotels or at airports or when I’m in office meetings that are about to put me to sleep. This is not the only site that I visit where I’m perceived as an antagonist and people don’t understand my willing involvement in the comment system. But alas it’s entertaining and I like to challenge the views of others on the internet especially when I know they are being very one-sided, at that point I love to take the other side which here is generally disagreeing with the way tmobile does just about everything. Also, there is just something about T-Mobile that just makes me want to not like it but lately they’ve actually gotten their heads out their asses and seem to get the point. So I hope that helps clear the air on my personal stance stance and my willing involvement with you magenta lovers…

Jose Hernandez

Oh, Well that makes sense. Thank you for posting this in reply. I really appreciate it. I will see you in the boards……..

Anonymous

It makes me sad when I see a new T-Mobile customer complaining about customer service when only two years ago, T-Mobile was the company to beat in that aspect.

Fabian Cortez

A great deal of flaws in that article.

1) From the third paragraph under “AWS spectrum from AT&T.”

AT&T had indeed planned on using T-Mobile’s AWS spectrum, along with their (AT&T’s) 700 MHz holdings for LTE in the same manner as they do with their 850 MHz and 1900 MHz for 3G/HSPA. If 1700 MHz was so bad, why does AT&T almost exclusively use 1900 MHz for 3G (850 not so much)? By his logic and argument, the lower the frequency, the better (this is true however). It’s all about licensing and how many/much you “own.”

2) Last paragraph under ““Re-farming” PCS spectrum.”

T-Mobile’s not shutting off EDGE. They’re simply reducing the amount of frequency allocated to it (GSM/GPRS/EDGE). Those 1 million+ iPhone users (3G, 3GS, 4, and 4S. Sorry original iPhone owners) will actually see an incline in quality of service as where they previously had EDGE, they would now be greeted with 42 Mbps (device radio-limited of course) HSPA+ [on PCS 1900 MHz]. It is the the users with phones without 3G radios that will see a decline in QoS.

I’m sure there are more fallacies in that article that others will pick up on.

Anonymous

even if that is the case, there are still many things working against tmo.

Tmostinks

I actually work for T-Mobile and the company is going down hill fast. It’s so hard to work for a company that will not back you with a good product. They aren’t trying to make it better either. The company is so kiss butt that it’s crazy. Shady shady business being done. I promise you they will not be a company for too much longer

Badankadank

You dummy, they pay you. This article is about spectral efficiency. Report your ethical concerns internally and they will be investigated, I assure you. Clearly you aren’t in the technical field to be qualified, but I guess we can’t block dumb posts.

Spectral efficiency wise, T-Mobile is using GSM (this is 2G) and UMTS for their 3G/4G. Verizon uses CDMA (a 3G network) and LTE for their 4G. This right off does not compare the apples to apples. Additionally, spectral efficiency does not mean we divide customers with frequency. That’s a stupid metric. You have to measure with speed over frequency (bit/s/Hz). So in that case, I’d say LTE wins where it is available, UMTS where it is not… and both relevant to how much spectrum each carrier has at that location.So lets make it simple. Lets compare UMTS to CDMA3G. When it comes to spectral efficiency, then UMTS wins. Why? Because, on CDMA you have to dedicate a frequency to data. In UMTS, you use what you need for voice and what’s left can and will be used for data. That my friend is 100% efficient. If it were not efficient, VZ wouldn’t be opting for LTE which was developed in the 3GPP standards committee

Now lets talk all this 4G crap everyone throws around. As it is, LTE Release 8 (think VZ and ATT) don’t qualify to be called 4G any more than HSPA+. So, for this, let’s just agree everyone is throwing around terms. LTE is a more efficient network, that’s why everyone’s going to it.

Finally, lets do marketing. Very few people would understand the technical answer so you’re sold throughput claims. My take? Who cares. 100 users streaming on LTE, and 2 on HSPA+, I’ll take HSPA+ every time. 100 users on HSPA+ and 2 on GSM Edge, I’ll take Edge.

Peace

WillieFDiaz

If Verizon is so spectrum efficient, why do they need more spectrum? Shouldn’t they recycle their already large swaths of efficient spectrum?

You listening FCC? Deny the spectrum purchase since Verizon is so efficient and arrogant.

Who cares can we just have simple rate plans no overages & work on network improvements all this back and forth is boring

Yellowfaceboul

I don’t know about u guys, but I ALWAYS get great coverage/speeds with T-Mobile. I live just outside of Philadelphia. People have to realize that there are no real “UNLIMITED” data plans anymore. All carriers stop/slow your service after certain GB’s. 5GB is 5GB, no matter how fast u get there. So as long as I’m getting 8mbps DL and not having to pay an arm and a leg, who cares if Verizon is faster? I’m able to stream Netflix, download everything I want at a fast pace. To reiterate, 5GB/month is still 5GB/month, no matter how fast u get there!

All the trolls on these comments, jeez. First off, yes T-Mobile has problems and yes they need to be worked on, so on and so on, we get it.

But first off, last year T-Mobile thought they were being taken over by AT&T, so they didn’t really CARE if they had your business or not. Now, they are going to rebrand themselves and re-do the company. Soo stop complaining and just be patient, I gaurentee the T-Mobile we knew will be back.
And again, like other people have said, some of you get bad service with T-Mobile, some of us don’t, so stop trolling because frankly, we don’t care. If you don’t want T-Mobile anymore, fine, then leave. But don’t come complaining to us, because we don’t care.
And another person said, stop saying T-Mobile isn’t doing it right, maybe they aren’t, maybe they are, we won’t know until its done.
I’ve been with T-Mobile for 7 years and yes, last year was the worst year ever for T-Mobile, but with all the stuff thats happened this week, I see the told T-Mobile coming back, and I think we could see real improvement this year. So just wait it out. I think we’ll be good.
And trolls, please go away. Thanks.(:

Anonymous

Good post. i have been with Tmobile since 2004 and the only problem i have with them is phone selection. Never really had data issues, or have had dropped calls. Always been a good experience. i just really wish we had better phones. When the G1 came out and the android revolution began i figured TMo would be the android kings. I find the offerings are weak. They have not had the best phone out in some time. I feel thats what they need to really come back strong, offer that ONE phone to shut everyone up. I know the Nexus series (before the GalNex) was prone to TMo but that was without being able to buy it in stores or get great discounts. Now the GalNex is all over Verizon. The OneS looks cool, but again, not near the best. Soon i may leave to get better devices. But the service, i am one of those that have always had a great experience and the ones complaining, its simple, go somewhere else.

Guest

I think t-mobile does an excellent job of making sure our network is great… do they have room for improvement? of course… every provider does. T-Mobile is going to be making some great moves in the near future and I think they will come out strong…. Haters and complainers should do their research Verizon has customers that not happy so does AT&T and so does Sprint…. THE GRASS ISN’T ALWAYS GREENER!!!!!

The Reeves Law Group

As a attorney car accident, I use my iPhone with Verizon all the time. I love Verizon, I seriously could never use anything else. That’s just me though!

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